Kimberly Dixon-Mays

Kimberly Dixon-Mays (she/her) is a poet, playwright and sometimes performer. Her work was featured in Congo Square Theatre Company’s 2019 August Wilson New Play Initiative. She was a semi-finalist for the 2019 Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, a semi-finalist for the 2020 National Black Theatre I Am Soul Playwright Residency, and recipient of NBT’s Soul Series Lab Playwriting Micro-Development Session. She was nominated for a 2021 3Arts Award, selected for Goodman Theatre’s 2022 Future Lab series, a 2023 and 2025 finalist for American Blues Theater’s Blue Ink Award, and a 2024 finalist for Definition Theatre’s Amplify Series. In 2025 the world premiere of her play Rabbits in Their Pockets opened the 43rd season of Chicago’s Lifeline Theatre. Dixon-Mays has also developed work with theaters including Rivendell, Shattered Globe, Stage Left, and The Gift. In 2023, she received an Illinois Arts Council fellowship. She was also a 2018-20 Russ Tutterow Fellow with Chicago Dramatists. Dixon-Mays is currently one of Chicago Dramatists’ Resident Playwrights, and serves as a Senior Editor for RHINO poetry magazine. She holds a B.A. from Yale, an M.A. from UCLA, and a Ph.D. from Northwestern.